A Look at the Rebel Moon Cast’s Evolution Into Shredded Science Fiction Heroes

Zack Snyder made “mandatory” training for the cast of Rebel Moon: Charlie Hunnam, Ray Fisher, Ed Skrein, and Staz Nair.

Zack Snyder creates a fresh new sci-fi universe inhabited with a pantheon of recognizable characters in Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire, setting the atmosphere for spectacular action sequences and complex stunt work. And for the actors in the film, that meant a lot of time spent at the gym beforehand.

“I’ve gotten down in the gym before, but this was something else,” Kai actor Charlie Hunnam says in a Behind the Streams cast interview. “I must admit that I was really reluctant to the training. I had no idea that was required; I guess that surprised me. Then it was time to work on team building. ‘I don’t want to walk up on set with these men having gone through blood, sweat, and tears together at the gym… I’m going to have to show up and do this,’ I thought. And it was fantastic.”

Snyder has previously stated that he enjoys working out with his actors to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and for Rebel Moon, he brought in his personal trainer, Alessandro Komadina, to get the male ensemble in shape.

“Part of his ethos is that by putting us through this rigorous physical experience, it allows us to settle into the character physically,” says Staz Nair, who portrays Tarak in the film. “To be these warriors, to be these survivors.”

Tarak, a Tarzan-like figure who communicates to animals and spends much of the picture naked, is Rebel Moon’s most chiseled character, a return to Snyder’s pulpy fantasy predecessors’ long-haired, muscular heroes. And Nair had a method for cutting the “chocolate block” six-pack. “I did zero cardio to get in that shape,” he confesses. “People assume to get lean, you have to do a lot of cardio, and it was all caloric deficit; dieting a certain way and then training very hard.”

Ed Skrein, on the other hand, underwent “lots of cardio” to obtain the villain Noble’s wiry, nearly skeletal body. “I remember the first time I saw Staz on set and thought, ‘he looks amazing, I’m not supposed to look like that,'” he said. “Noble does not resemble that. So it was all about being incredibly, really slender, sinewy, and vascular, and making it unusual, bizarre, and terrifying for me.”

Ray Fisher, who previously collaborated with Snyder on Justice League, plays the colossal warrior Bloodaxe. While he is delighted with the polished final result of all their hard work, he wants viewers to know that preparing for Rebel Moon was far from glamorous.

“If you’re watching a Hollywood movie and think it’s all fun and games, glitz and glamor—we’re not out at Equinox with the eucalyptus towels,” he goes on to remark. “We’re literally in somebody’s basement, sweating it out.”